This invention relates generally to a conveyor system, and more specifically, in one embodiment, to a conveyor system within a baking apparatus including at least a proofer for conditioning dough and a baking oven for baking the dough after it has been conditioned.
Baking systems of the type including a proofer for conditioning dough prior to the baking operation are in common use for making a wide variety of different dough products (e.g., hard rolls, cinnamon rolls, danish pastries, pies, etc.). As illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,804,583, entitled "Baking Oven", which patent has been assigned to the assignee of this application, a conveyor system has been disclosed which carries the dough to be baked in a serpentine path through the apparatus. A serious deficiency existing in such prior art systems is that operators were unable to vary the ratio between the proofing and baking times in a simple, reliable and economical manner. For example, if the conveyor was operated either slower or faster, such action would result in the corresponding speeding or slowing of the time the product remained in both the proofer and the oven. This seriously detracts from the versatility of a system since it could not be easily employed to bake a wide variety of products requiring different ratios of proofing to baking times. The difficulty in varying this ratio is compounded by the fact that a continuous conveyor is employed to direct the baking pans containing the dough through the proofing and baking ovens. Therefore, merely increasing or decreasing the speed of the conveyor will not change the ratio of baking time to proofing time. If this ratio could be changed in an easy and reliable manner, the versatility of the baking system would be greatly enhanced. For example, wet products such as pies usually require a longer baking time than other drier products, such as rolls. Accordingly, once a conveyor was designed for larger ratios of baking to proofing time, it could not easily be changed to accommodate a different product. It is to such a system that the instant invention is directed.